Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Wrestling Seeks Lofty Goals In Final Home Matches Saturday
February 17, 2010 | Wrestling
The Princeton wrestling team is competing in its final regular season matches this weekend, and it has some lofty goals in its sights when it takes on both Penn (1) and Millersville (2:30) this weekend at Dillon Gym.
Both of this weekend's home matches will be streamed live on GoPrincetonTigers.TV.
After going 2-53 in its previous three seasons, Princeton is a remarkable 9-9 this season and has won five of its last six matches. Any victory this weekend would give the Tigers their first 10-win season against Division I competition in nearly two decades.
Even more importantly, a victory over Penn would give Princeton its first second-place finish in the Ivy League since 1987; the Tigers are assured no worse than third place this year, a huge jump after eight straight seasons of finishing last in the league.
Princeton has victories over Harvard (35-10), Brown (21-15) and Columbia (28-13), and its only Ivy League loss came to the sixth-ranked Cornell Big Red. Meanwhile, Penn comes into the weekend with the exact same wins and losses in league competition; outside of the Brown match, a 35-6 win for the Quakers, even the comparative scores are similar for both Penn and Princeton.
Individually, a handful of second-team All-Ivy League spots will likely be decided Saturday afternoon as well. Considering Cornell will nearly sweep the first-team honorees, several of the Princeton-Penn winners will stake their claim for second-team spots with wins. Princeton hasn't had a second-team All-Ivy honoree since Jake Butler (197) in 2005.
Defeating Penn, which is 9-5 on the season, will be a tall order for Princeton. The Quakers have five probable starters this weekend with at least 18 victories, while Princeton has only one. Penn could start eight wrestlers with winning records, while Princeton could start only four.
However, the newfound confidence gained in its recent surge has made this Princeton squad a far different one than even the Tiger team from late January. Consider several of the individual successes:
Garrett Frey (125) has been Princeton's most consistent wrestler of the season. He has 24 wins on the season, including the first 11 of his collegiate career, and has won seven of his last eight. Frey is 3-1 in the Ivy League, with his only loss against Cornell.
Zach Bintliff (133) is a freshman who recorded a key pin last weekend against Columbia. He has eight wins during an injury-plagued season, but he has won two of his last three matches.
Luis Ramos (141) has 14 wins on the season, including four in the last five matches. He recorded a pin in 36 seconds against Columbia and is 3-1 in the Ivy League, with his only loss against Cornell's Kyle Dake, the top-ranked wrestler in the nation.
Daniel Kolodzik (149) got to double-digit wins last weekend with a victory over Columbia. After starting his season with a 5-9 record, Kolodzik has gone 5-1 and owns two wins over once-nationally ranked wrestlers this season.
Danny Scotton (157) has won each of his last four matches and provided Princeton's only victory against Cornell. Like Ramos, his only Ivy League loss has come to the nation's top-ranked wrestler (Harvard's J.P. O'Connor). Scotton won tight thrillers against both Brown and Columbia; the latter featured a late five-point move that earned him an 11-9 win.
Travis Erdman (174) has won six of his last seven matches, including three by fall, and earned a 4-3 win over Columbia that helped clinch the Tigers' third Ivy win. Erdman also had the key pin at Brown to lead Princeton to that six-point victory.
Kurt Brendel (184) is Princeton's second-leading wrestler in terms of wins with 18, but he is in a loaded Ivy League weight class. Still, his 33 wins over the last two seasons are the best among any Tiger wrestlers.
Princeton will take on Millersville following its showdown with Penn. A Division I program from the East Regional Conference, Millersville has two 20-win wrestlers in Jarrett Hostetter (157) and Shane Smith (174).
Princeton will also honor seniors Scotton and Mike Alvarez this weekend; the following is text from this weekend's program:
As freshmen, both Mike Alvarez and Danny Scotton were part of a winless wrestling season at Princeton. They saw it happen again as sophomores; in a sport as difficult as wrestling, there had to be a moment or two when both wondered if it was worth it.
They stuck it out, were part of two wins in the 2008-09 season, and today they can help Princeton to a remarkable double-digit victory campaign.
“I couldn't be more pleased for both Mike Alvarez and Danny Scotton to have experienced this team success before they graduated from Princeton,” said head coach Chris Ayres. “Their perseverance and dedication to the program has been more than an inspiration to the rest of the room; they won key matches in our victories over Harvard, Brown and Columbia.”
Alvarez, a Wilmington, Del. native and graduate of Tower Hill, recorded a 13-3 win over Nick Brazeau to help Princeton to a 35-10 win over Harvard; it was Princeton's first Ivy League win since 2003. Alvarez also had a big win in Princeton's victory over Franklin & Marshall last season; that was the Tigers' first team win since Alvarez arrived.
Scotton, an in-state product of Burlington Twp. in Burlington, N.J., is producing a brilliant conclusion to his career. He has won a career-best 14 matches already this season, including wins over Brown, Columbia and Cornell; he was the only Tiger to claim a win against the sixth-ranked Big Red. Scotton's dramatic wins over both Brown and Columbia, which both featured late rallies in the third period, helped Princeton clinch its first winning record in the Ivy League since 1987.
PRINCETON-PENN PROBABLES
WEIGHT
PENN PROBABLE
RECORD
PRINCETON PROBABLE
RECORD
125
Mark Rappo
14-8
Garrett Frey
24-5
133
Bryan Ortenzio
26-8
Zach Bintliff
8-12
141
Zack Kemmerer
25-9
Luis Ramos
14-15
149
Cesar Grajales
8-3
Daniel Kolodzik
10-10
157
Dragon/Hernandez
4-2/10-12
Danny Scotton
14-15
165
Gabriel Burak
29-8
Lowy/Alvarez
15-12/3-7
174
Scott Giffin
18-4
Travis Erdman
15-13
184
Harrison Cook
8-15
Kurt Brendel
17-14
197
Micah Burak
18-7
Charles Fox
9-23
HWT
Tyler Blakely
8-14
Bobby Grogan
4-22